Despite the large number of artistic depictions, cartoons and the widely accepted tradition, the Bible does not say anything about the forbidden fruit being an apple. Quoting the Genesis: ”The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.””’. However, no one exactly knows why was an apple later chosen to represent the forbidden fruit. Author of this passage in the Bible surely did not mean an apple tree; there were no apple trees in the Middle East at the time the Genesis was written.

Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer (1507)

According to orthodox biblical studies, it was much more likely to be a fig tree. It was widespread in the Middle East at the biblical times, and in addition, Adam and Eve even used fig leaves to cover their private parts right after the ingestion of the forbidden fruit.

Apparently, apples got to this story via celtic and ancient Greek myths and legends. Apple, being an ancient symbol of sex and fertility, could have easily earned the reputation of ”forbidden fruit” in the eyes of early Christians.

Because of numerous paintings, movies and cartoons, we often imagine Napoleon Bonaparte as unusually short man, even when compared to his contemporaries. However, the myth that Napoleon was short stems primarily from the fact that he was measured 5 feet 2 inches few years before his death. However, this was his height in French feet and french inches, which were little bit larger than imperial units.

Napoleon Bonaparte

In modern units, Napoleon was actually 5 feet 7 inches tall. When compared to average height in today’s France, it really isn’t much, however, in 19.th century, average male height was less than 5 feet 5 inches. That means Napoleon Bonaparte was actually quite tall for his time.

Although Napoleon was sometimes considered short even during his lifetime, this stems solely from the fact that he was always accompanied by bodyguards, who had to be taller than the average. When compared to his guards, he logically looked smaller, thus earning him the nickname ”The Little Corporal”.